Rather Than Improving, VA Wait Times Are ‘Increasing Significantly’: Internal Memo
VA Deputy Secretary Sloan Gibson says the agency can't catch up as more veterans seek care. In related news, investigators find that patients died while waiting for urology care at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Phoenix.
CNN:
Veterans Still Facing Major Medical Delays At VA Hospitals
Appointment wait times at the Department of Veterans Affairs are not getting better. Despite billions of extra dollars poured into the agency in the last year and numerous reforms intended to improve veterans' access to care, whistleblowers and internal documents obtained by CNN reveal some VA facilities continue to grapple with appointment wait times of months or more. (Griffin, Black, Bronstein and Devine, 10/20)
The Washington Post:
Cancer Patients Died Waiting For Care At Troubled Veterans’ Hospital, Probe Finds
Some patients with bladder and prostate cancer died waiting for care, and medical treatment for almost 1,500 others was delayed because of short-staffing and mismanagement of urology care at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Phoenix, a new investigation has found. Senior officials at the medical center, the center of a national scandal last year over fudged wait times, did little to respond to a severe staffing shortage as recently as April 2015, investigators for the Department of Veterans Affairs inspector general found. (Rein, 10/20)
